Shane Beamer didn’t need much convincing when he started digging into Kendal Briles as a possible offensive coordinator hire. One look back at Arkansas’ 44-30 win over South Carolina in Week 2 of the 2022 season was enough to remind him exactly what Briles can do with an offense.
That afternoon at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium was a rough one for the Gamecocks. Arkansas rolled up 295 rushing yards and five touchdowns, with Raheim “Rocket” Sanders and KJ Jefferson driving the attack while Briles, then the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator, kept South Carolina chasing.
Now Briles is on Beamer’s staff after being hired away from TCU in the offseason, and Beamer said Tuesday at SEC Media Days that the tape from that game played a real role in the decision.
“I remember what KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders did that day, and they were a hard offense to stop,” Beamer said. “Kendal, I knew who he was; I didn't know him personally going into that day. What he did that day was impressive.
“The way that offense operated, how efficient they were. So, certainly, when I was going through the process of hiring a new offensive coordinator, I went back and I watched that game.”
Beamer also said he reached out to Sanders after the hire to get a read on Briles. Sanders, who ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns in that 2022 game, had transferred to South Carolina and then finished his senior season with 881 yards and 11 touchdowns after an injury-hit 2023 under offensive coordinator Dan Enos.
“I didn’t tell him why I was calling; I just [said], ‘Good to talk to you,’ all of that stuff,” Beamer said. “And I said, ‘If I said the name Kendal Briles to you, what would you say?’ And he didn’t hesitate, and he said, ‘Get it done,’ is what Rocket said.
“And I said, ‘Hold up now. Get it done like hire him, or get it done like he can get it done?’
And he goes, ‘Both.’ Knowing how I feel about Rocket and the kind of player he is and the person he is, that said a lot.”
Briles’ track record with Jefferson is part of why the hire makes sense. Jefferson, Arkansas’ starting quarterback from 2021-23, put up at least 2,600 passing yards and at least 640 rushing yards in each of his two seasons starting in Briles’ system.
South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers has a similar build and skill set. The redshirt junior is listed at 6-foot-3 and 238 pounds, and he said the staff has already shown him clips of Jefferson to illustrate how the offense can work. Sellers has also watched film of TCU quarterback Josh Hoover.
“Just when we're installing [the playbook], we see the clips from when they played and practiced, and all that,” Sellers said.
He also sounded confident about what kind of quarterback can thrive in Briles’ offense.
“It’s guys that can do both, run it, throw it, have knowledge of the system, and have trust in the guys around them,” Sellers said.
Beamer, entering his fifth year with hot-seat talk around him, said revisiting that Arkansas game only strengthened his belief that Briles is the right fit.
“I wanted to go back and watch how they attacked us and what they did, and some of the things they did offensively,” Beamer said. “And watching the tape of that game back in December when I was going through this process of hiring an offensive coordinator, watching the tape of that game on my computer did nothing but reaffirm Kendal was somebody that I wanted to get in our program.”
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